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COLUMBIA  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


AS  ORIGINALLY  PUBLISHED  IN  THE  '‘ATLANTIC  MONTHLY"  FOR  MAY,  1867. 


ELIAS  HOWE  J?  i 

[sewing  p.'asunk' 


mi 


RALEIGH,  N.  CAR 


Pamphlet  Collection 

Duke  University  Library 


ELIAS  HOWE,  Jr.,  Inventor. 


This  Machine  embraces  all  the  principles  ot  Sewing 
by  Machinery  embodied  in  all  the  Sewing  Machines  now 
in  use,  and  in  its  crude  form  makes  perfect  work  at  the 
rate  of  300  stitches  a minute. 


CUT  O F THE 


HISTORY 


CF 

THE  SEWING  MACHINE. 


BY  JAMES  P A R T O N . 


In  Cornhill,  Boston,  thirty  years  ago,  there  was  a shop  for  the 
manufacture  and  repair  of  nautical  instruments  and  philosophical 
apparatus,  kept  by  Ari  Davis.  Mr.  Davis  was  a very  ingenious  me- 
chanic, who  had  invented  a successful  dovetailing  machine,  much 
spoken  of  at  the  time,  when  inventions  were  not  as  numerous  as  they 
are  now.  Being  thus  a noted  man  in  his  calling,  he  gave  way  to  the 
foible  of  affecting  an  oddity  of  dress  and  deportment.  It  pleased 
him  to  sav  extravagant  and  nonsensical  things,  and  to  go  about  sing- 
ing, and  to  attract  attention  by  unusual  garments.  Nevertheless,  be- 
ing a really  skilful  mechanic,  he  was  frequently  consulted  by  the 
inventors  and  improvers  of  machinery,  to  whom  he  sometimes  gave 
a valuable  suggestion. 

In  the  year  1839  two  men  in  Boston — one  a mechanic  and  the  other 
a capitalist— were  striving  to  produce  a knitting  machine,  which  pro- 
ved to  be  a task  beyond  their  strength.  When  the  inventor  was  at 
his  wit’s  end  his  capitalist  brought  the  machine  to  the  shop  of  Ari 
Davis,  to  see  if  that  eccentric  genius  could  suggest  the  solution  of 
the  difficulty,  and  make  the  machine  work.  The  shop,  resolving  it- 
self into  a committee  of  the  whole,  gathered  about  the  knitting  ma- 
chine and  its  proprietor,  and  were  listening  to  an  explanation  of  its 
principle  when  Davis,  in  his  wild,  extravagant  way,  broke  in  with 
these  words:  “What  are  you  bothering  yourselves  with  a knitting 
machine  for?  Why  don't  you  make  a sewing  machine  ?” 

“ I wish  I could,"  said  the  capitalist;  “but  it  can’t  be  done," 

“ O,  yes  it  can,”  said  Davis  ; “ I can  make  a sewing  machine  mv-  . 
self.” 

“Well,”  said  the  other,  “you  do  it,  Davis,  and  I’ll  insure  you  an 
independent  fortune.” 


o 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


There  the  conversation  dropped,  and  it  was  never  resumed.  The 
boastful  remark  of  the  master  of  the  shop  was  considered  merely  one 
of  his  sallies  of  affected  extravagance,  as  it  really  was ; and  the  re- 
sponse of  the  capitalist  to  it  was  uttered  without  a thought  of  pro- 
ducing an  effect.  Nor  did  it  produce  any  effect  upon  the  person  to 
whom  it  was  addressed.  Davis  never  attempted  to  construct  a sew- 
ing machine. 

Among  the  workmen  who  stood  by  and  listened  to  this  conversa- 
tion was  a young  man  from  the  country,  a new  hand,  named  Elias 
Howe,  then  twenty  years  old.  The  person  whom  we  have  named  the 
capitalist,  a well  dressed  and  fine  looking  man,  somewhat  consequen- 
tial in  his  manners,  was  an  imposing  figure  in  the  eyes  of  this  youth, 
new  to  city  ways,  and  he  was  much  impressed  with  the  emphatic  as- 
surance that  a fortune  was  in  store  for  the  man  who  should  invent  a 
sewing  machine.  He  was  the  more  struck  with  it  because  he  had  al- 
ready amused  himself  with  inventing  some  slight  improvements,  and 
recently  he  had  caught  from  Davis  the  habit  of  meditating  new  de- 
vices. The  spirit  of  invention,  as  all  mechanics  know,  is  exceedingly 
contagious.  One  man  in  a shop  who  invents  something  that  proves 
successful  will  give  the  mania  to  half  his  companions,  and  the  very 
apprentices  will  be  tinkering  over  a device  after  their  day’s  work  is 
done.  There  were  other  reasons,  also,  why  a conversation  so  trifling 
and  accidental  should  have  strongly  impressed  itself  upon  the  mind 
of  this  particular  youth.  Before  that  day  the  idea  of  sewing  by  the 
aid  of  a machine  had  never  occurred  to  him. 

Elias  Howe,  the  inventor  of  the  sewing  machine,  was  born  in  1819, 
at  Spencer,  in  Massachusetts,  where  his  father  was  a farmer  and  mill- 
er. There  was  a grist  mill,  a saw  mill  and  a shingle  machine  on  the 
place;  but  all  of  them  together,  with  aid  of  the  farm,  yielded  but  a 
slender  revenue  for  a man  blessed  with  eight  children.  It  was  a cus- 
tom in  that  neighborhood,  as  in  New  England  generally,  forty  years 
ago,  for  families  to  carry  on  some  kind  of  manufacture  at  which  the 
children  could  assist.  At  six  years  of  age  Elias  Howe  worked  with 
his  brothers  and  sisters  at  sticking  the  wire  teeth  into  strips  of  leather 
for  “cards,”  used  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton.  As  soon  as  he  was 
old  enough  he  assisted  upon  the  farm  and  in  the  mills,  attending  the 
district  school  in  the  winter  months.  He  is  now  of  opinion  that  it 
was  the  rude  and  simple  mills  belonging  to  his  father  which  gave  his 
mind  its  bent  toward  machinery;  but  he  cannot  remember  that  this  bent 
was  very  decided,  nor  that  he  watched  the  operation  of  the  mill  with 
much  attention  to  the  mechanical  principles  involved.  He  was  a 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


3 


^careless,  playloving  boy,  and  the  first  eleven  years  of  his  life  passed 
without  an  event  worth  recording.  At  eleven  he  went  to  “live  out” 
with  a farmer  of  the  neighborhood,  intending  to  remain  until  he  was 
.twenty-one.  A kind  of  inherited  lameness  rendered  the  hard  work 
of  a farmer's  boy  distressing  to  him  ; and,  after  trying  it  for  a year, 
he  returned  to  his  father’s  house  and  resumed  his  place  in  the  mills, 
where  he  continued  until  he  was  sixteen. 

One  of  his  young  friends  returning  from  Lowell  about  this  time, 
gave  him  such  a pleasing  description  of  that  famous  town  that  he 
was  on  fire  to  go  thither.  In  1835,  with  his  parent’s  reluctant  consent, 
he  went  to  Lowell,  and  obtained  a learner’s  place  in  a large  manu- 
factory of  cotton  machinery,  where  he  remained  until  the  crash  of 
1837  closed  the  mills  of  Lowell  and  sent  him  adrift,  a seeker  after 
work.  He  went  to  Cambridge,  under  the  shadow  of  venerable 
Harvard.  He  found  employment  there  in  a large  machine  shop,  and 
was  set  at  work  upon  the  new  hemp  carding  machinery  invented 
by  Professor  Treadwell.  His  cousin,  Nathaniel  P.  Banks,  since 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  Major  General,  work- 
ed in  the  same  shop  and  boarded  in  the  same  house  with  him.  After 
working  a few  months  at  Cambridge,  Elias  Howe  found  employment 
more  congenial  in  Boston,  at  the  shop  of  Ari  Davis,  where  the  con- 
versation occurred  which  we  have  just  related. 

- Judging  merely  by  appearances,  no  one  would  have  pitched  up- 
on him  as  the  person  likely  to  make  one  of  the  revolutionizing  inven- 
tions of  the  age.  Undersized,  curly  headed,  and  exceedingly  fond  of 
his  joke,  he  was,  at  twenty,  more  a boy  than  a man.  Nor  was  he  very 
proficient  in  his  trade,  nor  inclined  to  put  forth  extra  exertion.  Stea- 
dy labor  was  always  irksome  to  him,  and  frequently,  owing  to  the 
■constitutional  weakness  to  which  we  have  alluded,  it  was  painful.  He 
was  not  the  person  to  seize  an  idea  with  avidity  and  work  it  out  with 
the  passionate  devotion  of  a Watt  or  a Goodyear.  The  only  immedi- 
ate effect  upon  him  of  the  conversation  in  the  shop  of  Mr.  Davis 
was  to  induce  a habit  of  reflecting  upon  the  art  of  sewing,  watching 
the  process  as  performed  by  hand,  and  wondering  whether  it  was 
within  the  compass  of  the  mechanic  arts  to  do  it  by  machinery.  His 
uppermost  thought  in  those  years  was,  what  a waste  of  power  to  em- 
ploy the  ponderous  human  arm,  and  all  the  intricate  machinery  of 
the  fingers,  in  performing  an  operation  so  simple,  and  for  which  a ro- 
bin’s strength  would  suffice!  Why  not  draw  twelve  threads  through 
at  once,  or  fifty  ? And  sometimes,  while  visiting  a shop  where  army 
-and  navy  clothing  was  made,  he  would  look  at  the  heaps  of  unsewed 


4 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


garments,  all  cut  alike,  all  requiring  the  same  stitch,  the  same  num- 
ber of  stitches,  and  the  same  kind  of  seam,  and  say  to  himself,  “ What 
a pity  this  cannot  be  done  by  machinery ! It  is  the  very  work  for  a 
machine  to  do.”  Such  thoughts,  however,  only  flitted  through  his 
mind  now  and  then;  he  was  still  far  from  any  serious  attempt  to  con- 
struct a machine  for  sewing  up  the  blue  trowsers. 


At  twenty-one,  being  still  a journeyman  machinist,  earning  nine 
dollars  a week,  he  married;  and,  in  time,  children  came  with  Incon- 
venient frequency.  Nine  dollars  is  a fixed  quantity,  or,  rather,  it  was 
then  j and  the  addition  of  three  little  mouths  to  be  fed  from  it,  ar.d 
three  little  backs  to  be  clothed  by  it,  converted  the  vivacious  father  into 
a thoughtful  and  plodding  citizen.  His  day’s  labor  at  this  time,  when 
he  was  upon  heavy  work,  was  so  fatiguing  to  him  that,  on  reaching 
his  home,  he  would  sometimes  be  too  exhausted  to  eat,  and  he  would 
go  to  bed,  longing  as  we  have  heard  him  say,  “ to  lie  in  bed  forever 
and  ever.”  It  was  the  pressure  of  poverty  and  this  extreme  fatigue 


not  be  ANOTHER  Stitch  ?' 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


5 


S 

that  caused  him,  about  the  year  1843,  to  set  about  the  work  of  invent- 
ing the  machine  which  he  had  heard  four  years  before  would  be  an 
“ independent  fortune”  to  the  inventor.  Then  it  was  that  he  caught 
the  inventor’s  mania,  which  gives  its  victims  no  rest  and  no  peace  till 
they  have  accomplished  the  work  to  which  they  have  abandoned  them- 
selves. 

He  wasted  many  months  on  a false  scent.  When  he  began  to  ex- 
periment his  only  thought  was  to  invent  a machine  which  should  do 
what  he  saw  his  wife  doing  when  she  sewed.  He  took  it  for  granted 
that  sewing  must  be  that , and  his  first  device  was  a needle  pointed  at 
both  ends,  with  the  eye  in  the  middle,  that  should  work  up  and  down 
through  the  cloth,  and  carry  the  thread  through  it  at  each  thrust. 

Hundreds  of  hours,  by  night  and  by  day,  he  brooded  over  this  con- 
ception, and  cut  many  a basket  of  chips  in  the  endeavor  to  make  some- 
thing that  would  work  such  a needle  so  as  to  form  a common  stitch. 
He  could  not  do  it.  One  day,  in  1844,  the  thought  flashed  upon  him  : 
Is  it  necessary  that  .a  machine  should  imitate  the  performance  of  the 
hand  ? May  there  not  be  another  stitch  ? This  was  the  crisis  of  the 
invention.  The  idea  of  using  two  threads,  and  forming  a stitch  by  the 
aid  of  a shuttle  and  a curved  needle,  with  the  eye  near  the  point, 
soon  occurred  to  him,  and  he  felt  that  he  had  invented  a sewing  ma- 
chine. It  was  in  the  month  of  October,  1844,  that  he  was  able  to  con- 
vince himself,  by  a rough  model  of  wood  and  wire,  that  such  a machine 
as  he  had  projected  would  sew. 

At  this  time  he  had  ceased  to  be  a journeyman  mechanic.  His  father 
had  removed  to  Cambridge,  to  establish  a machine  for  cutting  palm 
leaf  into  strips  for  hats — a machine  invented  by  a brother  of  the  elder 
Howe.  Father  and  son  were  living  in  the  same  house,  into  the  gar- 
ret of  which  the  son  had  put  a lathe  and  a few  machinist’s  tools,  and 
was  doing  a little  work  on  his  own  account.  His  ardor  in  the  work 
of  invention. robbed  him,  however,  of  many  hours  that  might  have 
been  employed,  his  friends  thought,  to  better  advantage  by  the  father 
of  a family.  He  was  extremely  poor,  and  his  father  had  lost  his  palm 
leaf  machine  by  a fire.  With  an  invention  in  his  head  that  has  since 
given  him  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  a single  year, 
and  which  is  now  yielding  a profit  to  more  than  one  firm  of  a thous- 
and dollars  a day,  he  could  scarcely  provide  for  his  little  family  the 
necessaries  of  life  ; nor  could  this  invention  be  tested  except  by  mak- 
ing a machine  of  steel  and  iron,  with  the  exactness  and  finish  of  a 
clock.  At  the  present  time,  with  a machine  before  him  for  a model, 
a good  mechanic  could  not,  with  his  ordinary  tools,  construct  a sew- 


6 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


ing  machine  in  less  than  two  months,  nor  at  a less  expense  than  three- 
hundred  dollars.  Elias  Howe  had  only  his  model  in  his  head,  and 
he  had  not  money  enough  to  pay  for  the  raw  material  requisite  for 
one  machine. 

There  was  living  then  at  Cambridge  a young  friend  and  schoolmate- 
of  the  inventor,  named  George  Fisher,  a coal  and  wood  merchant,  who- 
had  recently  inherited  some  property,  and  was  not  disinclined  to 
speculate  with  some  of  it.  The  two  friends  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
conversing  tegether  upon  the  project  of  the  sewing  machine.  When 
the  inventor  had  reached  his  final  conception,  in  the  fall  of  1844,  he 
succeeded  in  convincing  George  Fisher  of  its  feasibility,  which  led 
to  a partnership  between  them  for  bringing  the  invention  into  use. 
The  terms  of  this  partnership  were  these  : George  Fisher  was  to  re- 
ceive into  his  house  Elias  Howe  and  his  family,  board  them  while 
Elias  was  making  the  machine,  give  up  his  garret  for  a workshop, 
and  provide  money  for  material  and  tools,  to  the  extent  of  five  hun- 
dred dollars  ; in  return  for  which  he  was  to  become  the  proprietor  of 
one-half  the  patent,  if  the  machine  proved  to  be  worth  patenting.  Early 
in  December,  1844,  Elias  Howe  moved  into  the  house  of  George 
Fisher,  set  up  his  shop  in  the  garret,  gathered  materials  about  him 
and  went  to  work.  It  was  a very  small,  low  garret,  but  it  sufficed 
for  one  zealous,  brooding  workman,  who  did  not  wish  for  gossiping 
visitors. 

It  is  strange  how  the  great  things  come  about  in  this  world.  This 
George  Fisher,  by  whose  timely  aid  such  an  inestimable  boon  was 
conferred  upon  womankind,  was  led  into  the  enterprise  as  much  by 
good  nature  as  by  expectation  of  profit,  and  it  was  his  easy  acquisi- 
tion of  his  money  that  made  it  easy  for  him  to  risk  it.  So  far  as  we 
know,  neither  of  the  parties  indulged  in  any  dream  of  benevolence. 
Howe  wanted  to  invent  a sewing  machine  to  deliver  himself  from 
that  painful  daily  toil,  and  Fisher  was  inclined  to  aid  an  old  friend, 
and  not  disinclined  to  own  a share  in  a valuable  patent.  The  great- 
est doers  of  good  have  usually  proceeded  in  the  same  homely  spirits 
Thus  Shakespeare  wrote,  thus  Columbus  sailed,  thus  Watt  invented, 
thus  Newton  discovered.  It  seems,  too,  that  George  Fisher  was 
Elias  Howe’s  only  convert.  “ I believe,”  testified  George  Fisher,  in 
one  of  the  great  sewing  machine  suits,  “ I was  the  onlv  one  of  his 
neighbors  and  friends  in  Cambridge  that  had  an}'  confidence  in  the 
success  of  the  invention.  He  was  generally  looked  upon  as  very 
visionary  in  undertaking  anything  of  the  kind,  and  I was  thought 
very  foolish  in  assisting  him.”  It  is  the  old  story. 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


7 


All  the  winter  of  1844-45  Mr.  Howe  worked  at  his  machine.  His 
conception  of  what  he  intended  to  produce  was  so  clear  and  complete 
that  he  was  little  delayed  by  failures,  but  worked  on  with  almost  as 
much  certainty  and  steadiness  as  though  he  had  a model  before  him. 
In  April  he  sewed  a seam  by  his  machine.  By  the  middle  of  May, 
1845,  he  had  completed  his  work.  In  July  he  sewed  by  his  machine 
all  the  seams  of  two  suits  of  woolen  clothes — one  suit  for  Mr.  Fisher 
and  the  other  for  himself — the  sewing  of  both  of  which  outlasted  the 
cloth.  This  first  of  all  sewing  machines,  after  crossing  the  ocean 
many  times,  and  figuring  as  a dumb  but  irrefutable  witness  in  many 
a court,  may  still  be  seen  at  Mr.  Howe’s  office  in  Broadway,  where, 
within  these  few  weeks,  it  has  sewed  seams  in  cloth  at  the  rate  of 
three  hundred  stitches  a minute.  It  is  agreed  by  all  disinterested 
persons  (Professor  Renwuck  among  others)  who  have  examined  this 
machine,  that  Elias  Howe,  in  making  it,  carried  the  invention  of  the 
sewing  machine  farther  on  towards  its  complete  and  final  utility  than 
any  other  inventor  has  ever  brought  a first  rate  invention  at  the  first 
trial.  It  is  a little  thing,  that  first  machine,  which  goes  into  a box  of 
the  capacity  of  about  a cubic  foot  and  a half.  Every  contrivance  in 
it  has  been  since  improved,  and  new  devices  have  been  added,  but  no 
successful  sewing  machine  has  ever  been  made,  of  all  the  seven  hun- 
dred thousand  now  in  existence,  which  does  not  contain  some  of  the 
esential  devices  of  this  first  attempt.  We  make  this  assertion  without 
hesitation  or  reserve,  because  it  is,  we  believe,  the  one  point  upon 
which  all  the  great  makers  are  agreed.  Judicial  decisions  have  repeat- 
edly affirmed  it. 

Like  all  the  other  great  inventors,  Mr.  Howe  found  that,  when  he 
had  completed  his  machine,  his  difficulties  had  but  begun.  After  he 
had  brought  the  machine  to  the  point  of  making  a few  stitches,  he 
went  to  Boston  one  day  to  get  a tailor  to  come  to  Cambridge  and 
arrange  some  cloth  for  sewing,  and  give  his  opinion  as  to  the  quality 
of  the  work  done  by  the  machine.  The  comrads  of  the  man  to  whom 
he  first  applied  disuaded  him  from  going,  alleging  that  a sewing  ma- 
chine, if  it  worked  well,  must  necessarily  reduce  the  whole  fraternity 
'of  tailors  to  beggary;  and  this  proved  to  be  the  unchangeable  con- 
viction of  the  tailors  for  the  next  ten  years.  It  is  probable  that  the 
machines  first  made  would  have  been  destroyed  by  violence  but  for 
another  fixed  opinion  of  the  tailors,  which  was  that  no  machine  could 
be  made  that  would  really  answer  the  purpose.  It  seems  strange 
now  that  the  tailors  of  Boston  could  have  persisted  so  long  in  such 
an  opinion,  for  Mr.  Howe,  a few  weeks  after  he  had  finished  his  first 


8 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


model,  gave  them  an  opportunity  to  see  what  it  could  do.  He  placed 
his  little  engine  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  the  Quincy  Hall  Clothing 
Manufactory,  and,  seating  himself  before  it,  offered  to  sew  up  any 
seam  that  might  be  brought  to  him.  One  unbelieving  tailor  after 
another  brought  a garment,  and  saw  its  long  seams  sewed  perfectly, 
at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  stitches  a minute,  which  was 
about  seven  times  as  fast  as  the  work  could  be  done  bv  hand.  For 


The  first  Contest  betzveen  Hand  and  Machine  Sewing  at  Quincy  Hall , Boston. 


two  weeks  he  sat  there  daily,  and  sewed  up  seams  for  all  who  chose 
to  bring  them  to  him.  He  amused  himself  at  intervals  in  executing- 
rows  of  ornamental  stitching,  and  he  showed  the  strength  ot  the 
machine  by  sewing  the  thick  plaited  skirts  of  frock  coats  to  the 
bodies.  At  last  lie  challenged  five  of  the  swiftest  seamstresses  in  the 
establishment  to  sew  a race  with  the  machine.  Ten  seams  ot  equal 
length  ^were  prepared  for  sewing,  five  of  which  were  laid  by  the 
machine,  and  the  other  five  were  given  to  the  girls.  The  gentleman 
who  held  the  watch,  and  who  was  to  decide  the  wager,  testified  upon 


9 


.History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 

oath  that  the  five  girls  were  the  fastest  sewers  that  could,  be  found, 
and  that  they  sewed  as  “ fast  as  they  could— much  faster  than  they 
were  in  the  habit  of  sewing” — faster  than  they  could  have  kept  on 
for  one  hour.  Nevertheless,  Mr.  Howe  finished  his  five  seams  a little 
sooner  than  the  girls  finished  their  five ; and  the  umpire,  who  was 
himself  a tailor,  has  sworn  that  “the  work  done  on  the  machine  was 
the  neatest  and  strongest.” 

Upon  reading  testimony  like  this  we  wonder  that  manufacturers 
did  not  instantly  set  Mr.  Howe  at  work  making  sewing  machines. 
Not  one  was  ordered  ; not  a tailor  encouraged  him  by  word  or  deed. 
Some  objected  that  the  machine  did  not  make  the  whole  garment ; 
others  dreaded  to  encounter  the  fierce  opposition  of  the  journeymen  ; 
others  really  thought  it  would  beggar  all  hand  sewers,  and  refrained 
from  using  it  on  principle  ; others  admitted  the  utility  of  the  machine, 
and  the  excellence  of  the  work  done  by  it,  but,  said  they,  “ We  are 
doing  well  as  we  are,  and  fear  to  make  such  a change.”  The  great  cost 
of  the  machine  was  a most  serious  obstacle  to  its  introduction.  A year 
or  two  since  Mr.  Howe  caused  a copy  of  his  first  machine  to  be  made  for 
exhibition  in  his  window,  and  it  cost  him  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 
In  1845  he  could  not  have  furnished  his  machine  for  less  than  three 
hundred  dollars,  and  a large  clothier  or  shirt  maker  would  have  requir- 
ed thirty  or  forty  of  them. 

The  inventor  was  not  disheartened  by  the  result  of  the  introduction 
of  the  machine.  The  next  thing  was  to  get  the  invention  patented, 
and  Mr.  Howe  again  shut  himself  up  in  George  Fisher’s  garret  for 
three  or  four  months,  and  made  another  machine  for  deposit  in  the 
Patent  Office.  In  the  spring  of  1846,  there  being  no  prospect  of  rev- 
enue from  the  invention,  he  engaged  as  “ engineer  ” upon  one  of  the 
railroads  terminating  at  Boston,  and  “ drove  ” a locomotive  daily  for 
some  weeks  ; but  the  labor  proved  too  much  for  his  strength,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  give  it  up.  Late  in  the  summer  the  model  and  the 
documents  being  ready  for  the  Patent  Office,  the  two  associates  treated 
themselves  to  a journey  to  Washington,  where  the  wonderful  machine 
was  exhibited  at  a Fair,  with  no  results  except  to  amuse  the  crowd. 
September  10,  1846,  the  patent  was  issued,  and  soon  after  the  young 
men  returned  to  Cambridge. 

George  Fisher  was  now  totally  discouraged.  He  had  maintained 
the  inventor  and  his  family  for  many  months;  he  had  provided  the 
money  for  the  tools  and  material  for  two  machines ; he  .had  paid  the 
expenses  of  getting  the  patent  and  of  the  journey  to  Washington;  he 
had  advanced  in  all  about  two  thousand  dollars,  and  he  saw  not  the 


IO 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


remotest  probability  of  the  invention  becoming  profitable.  Elias 
Howe  moved  back  to  his  father's  house,  and  George  Fisher  consider- 
ed his  advance  in  the  light  of  a dead  loss.  “ I had  lost  confidence.”  he 
has  since  testified,  “ in  the  machine’s  ever  paying  anything.” 

But  mothers  and  inventors  do  not  give  up  their  offspring  so. 
America  having  rejected  the  invention,  Mr.  Howe  resolved  to  offer  it 
to  England.  In  October,  1846,  his  brother,  Amasa  B.  Howe,  with  the 
assistance  of  their  father,  took  passage  in  the  steerage  of  a sailing 
packet,  and  conveyed  one  of  the  machines  to  London.  An  English- 


“ I am  Poory  but  will  not  Kneel  to  one  who  Treads  your  Soil." 

man  was  the  first  manufacturer  who  had  faith  enough  in  the  American 
sewing  machine  to  invest  money  in  it.  In  Cheapside  Amasa  Howe 
came  upon  the  shop  of  William  Thomas,  who  emploved,  according  to 
his  own  account,  five  thousand  persons  in  the  manufacture  of  corsets, 
umbrellas,  valises,  carpet  bags  and  shoes.  William  Thomas  examined 
and  approved  the  machine.  Necessity,  as  Poor  Richard  remarks,  can- 
not make  a good  bargain;  but  the  bargain  which  it  made  on  this  oc- 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine.  1 1 

casion,  through  the  agency  of  Amasa  B.  Howe,  was  signally  bad.  He 
sold  to  Mr.  Thomas,  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  sterling,  the 
machine  he  had  brought  with  him,  and  the  right  to  use  as  many  others 
in  his  own  business  as  he  desired.  There  was  also  a verbal  under- 
standing that  Mr.  Thomas  was  to  patent  the  invention  in  England,, 
and,  if  the  machine  came  into  use  there,  he  was  to  pay  the  inventor 
three  pounds  on  every  machine  sold.  That  was  an  excellent  day’s 
work  for  William  Thomas,  of  Cheapside.  The  verbal  part  of  the  bar- 
gain has  never  been  carried  out.  He  patented  the  invention,  and  ever 
since  the  machines  began  to  be  used  all  sewing  machines  made  in 
England,  or  imported  into  England,  have  paid  tribute  to  him  at  the 
rate  of  ten  pounds  or  less  for  each  machine.  Elias  Howe  is  of  opin- 
ion that  the  investment  of  that  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  has 
yielded  a profit  of  one  million  dollars.  Mr.  Thomas  further  proposed 
to  engage  the  inventor  to  adapt  the  machine  to  the  work  upon  corsets, 
offering  him  the  munificent  stipend  of  three  pounds  a week,  and  to 
defray  the  expense  of  workshop,  tools  and  material. 

Amasa  B.  Howe  returned  to  Cambridge  with  this  offer.  America 
being  still  insensible  to  the  charms  of  the  new  invention,  and  the  two 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds  having  been  immediately  absorbed  by  the 
long  accumulating  necessities  of  the  family,  and  there  being  no  pros- 
pect of  advantageous  employment  at  home,  Elias  Howe  accepted  the 
offer,  and  both  brothers  set  sail  for  London  February  5th,  1847.  They 
went  in  the  steerage  and  cooked  their  own  provisions.  William 
Thomas  provided  a shop  and  its  requisites,  and  even  advanced  money 
for  the  passage  to  England  of  the  inventor’s  family,  who  joined  him 
soon — wife  and  three  children.  After  eight  months  of  labor  the  in- 
ventor succeeded  in  adapting  his  machine  to  the  purposes  of  the  stay- 
maker,  and  when  this  was  done  the  stay-maker  apparently  desired  to 
get  rid  of  the  inventor.  He  required  him  to  do  the  miscellaneous  re- 
pairs, and  took  the  tone  with  him  which  the  ignorant  purse-holder,  in 
all  lands,  is  accustomed  to  hold  in  his  dealings  with  those  to  whom  lie 
pays  wages.  The  Yankee,  of  course,  resented  this  behavior,  and  Wil- 
Thomas  discharged  Elias  Howe  from  his  employment. 

To  be  a poor  stranger,  with  a sick  wife  and  three  children  in 
America,  is  to  be  in  a purgatory  that  is  provided  with  a practicable 
door  into  paradise ; to  be  such  a person  in  London  is  to  be  in  a hell 
without  visible  outlet. 

Since  undertaking  to  write  this  little  history  of  the  sewing  machine 
we  have  gone  over  about  thirty  thousand  pages  of  printed  testimony, 
taken  in  the  numerous  suits  to  which  sewing  machine  patents  have 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


1 2 

given  rise.  Of  all  these  pages  the-  most  interesting  are  those  from 
which  we  can  gather  the  history  of  Elias  Howe  during  the  next  few 
months.  From  a chance  acquaintance,  named  Charles  Inglis,  a 
coachmaker,  who  proved  to  be  a true  friend,  he  hired  a small  room 
for  a workshop,  in  which,  after  borrowing  a few  tools,  he  began  to 
construct  his  fourth  sewing  machine.  Long  before  it  was  finished  he 
saw  that  he  must  reduce  his  expenses  or  leave  his  machine  unfinished. 
From  three  rooms  lie  removed  his  family  to  one,  and  that  a small  one 
in  the  cheapest  quarter  of  Surrey.  Nor  did  that  economy  suffice;  and 
he  resolved  to  send  his  family  home  while  he  could,  and  trust  to  the 
machine  in  hand  for  the  means  to  follow  them. 


41  Loan  me  a few  Shillings , that  I may  fay  the  Washing  and  send  my  sick  wife  and  children 

to  America.'1 


“ Before  his  wife  left  London,”  testifies  Mr.  Inglis,  ‘‘he  had  fre- 
quently borrowed  money  from  me  in  sums  of  five  pounds,  and  re- 
quested me  to  get  him  credit  for  provisions.  On  the  evening  ot  Mrs. 
Howe’s  departure  the  night  was  very  wet  and  stormy,  and,  her  health 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


In  a low  London  Garret , Cooking  his  Food , he  gazes  on  his  Machine , exclaiming , ,l  / will  Pawn 
this  and  Start  for  America." 

After  three  or  four  months  of  labor  the  machine  was  finished.  It 
tvas  worth  fifty  pounds.  The  only  customer  he  could  find  for  it  was 
a workingman  of  his  acquaintance,  who  offered  five  pounds  for  it  if 
he  could  have  time  to  pay  it  in.  The  inventor  was  obliged  to  accept 
this  offer.  The  purchaser  gave  his  note  for  the  five  pounds,  which 
Charles  Inglis  succeeded  in  selling  to  another  mechanic  for  four^ 
pounds.  To  pay  his  debts  and  his  expenses  home,  Mr.  Howe  pawned 


being  delicate,  she  was  unable  to  walk  to  the  ship.  He  had  no  money 
to  pay  the  cab  hire,  and  he  borrowed  a few  shillings  from  me  to  pay 
it,' which  he  repaid  by  pledging  some  of  his  clothing.  Some  linen 
came  home  from  his  washerwoman  for  his  wife  and  children,  on  the 
day  of  her  departure  ; she  could  not  take  it  with  her,  on  account  of 
not  having  money  to  pay  the  woman.”  After  the  departure  of  his 
family  the  solitary  inventor  was  still  more  severely  pinched.  “ He 
has  borrowed  a shilling  from  me,”  says  Mr.  Inglis,  “for  the  purpose 
of  buying  beans,  which  I saw  him  cook  and  eat  in  his  own  room.” 


14 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


his  precious  first  machine  and  his  letters  patent.  “ He  drew  a hand- 
cart/with his  baggage  on  it,  to  the  ship,  to  save  the  expense  of  cart- 
age;” and  again  he  took  passage  in  the  steerage,  along  with  his 
Engl  ish  friend,  Charles  Inglis.  His  brother  Amasa  had  long  before 
returned  to  America. 

In  April,  1849,  Elias  Howe  landed  in  New  York,  after  an  absence 
of  two  years  from  the  country,  with  half  a crown  in  his  pocket.  Four 
years  had  nearly  elapsed  since  the  completion  of  his  first  machine, 
and  this  small  piece  of  silver  was  the  net  result  of  his  labors  upon 
that  invention.  He  and  his  friend  went  to  one  of  the  cheapest  emi- 
grant boarding  houses,-  and  Elias  Howe  sought  employment  in  the 
machine  shops,  which  luckily  he  found  without  delay.  The  news 
reached  him  soon  that  his  wife  was  dying  of  consumption,  but  he  had 
not  the  money  for  a journey  to  Cambridge.  In  a few  days,  however, 
he  received  ten  dollars  from  his  father,  and  he  was  thus  enabled  to 
reach  his  wife’s  bedside  and  receive  her  last  breath.  He  had  no 
clothes  except  those  he  daily  wore,  and  was  obliged  to  borrow  a suit 
from  his  brother-in-law  in  which  to  appear  at  the  funeral.  It  was 
remarked  by  his  old  friends  that  his  natural  gayety  of  disposition 
was  quite  quenched  by  the  severity  of  his  recent  trials.  He  was  ex- 
tremely down-cast  and  worn.  He  looked  like  a man  just  out  after  a 
long  and  agonizing  sickness.  Soon  came  intelligence  that  the  ship 
in  which  he  had  embarked  all  his  household  goods  had  been  wreck- 
ed off  Cape  Cod,  and  was  a total  loss. 

But  now  he  was  among  friends  who  hastened  to  relieve  his  imme- 
diate necessities,  and  who  took  care  of  his  children.  He  was  soon  at 
work ; not,  indeed,  at  his  beloved  machine,  but  at  work  which  his 
friends  considered  much  more  rational.  He  was  again  a journey- 
man machinist,  at  weekly  wages. 

As  nature  never  bestows  two  eminent  gifts  upon  the  same  individ- 
ual, the  man  who  makes  a great  invention  is  seldom  the  man  who 
prevails  upon  the  public  to  use  it.  Every  Watt  needs  his  Boultox. 
Neither  George  Fisher  nor  Elias  Howe  possessed  the  executive 
force  requisite  for  so  difficult  a piece  of  work  as  the  introduction  of 
a machine  which  then  cost  two  or  three  hundred  dollars  to  make,  and 
upon  which  a purchaser  had  to  take  lessons  as  upon  the  piano,  and 
which  the  whole  body  of  tailors  regarded  with  dread,  aversion  or  con- 
tempt. It  was  reserved,  therefore,  for  other  men  to  educate  the  people 
into  availing  themselves  of  this  exqusite  labor-saving  apparatus. 

Upon  his  return  home,  after  his  residence  in  London,  Elias  Howe 
discovered,  much  to  his  surprise,  that  the  sewing  machine  had  be- 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


15 


come  celebrated,  though  its  inventor  appeared  forgotten.  Several 
ingenious  mechanics,  who  had  only  heard  or  read  of  a machine  for 
sewing,  and  others  who  had  seen  the  Howe  machine,  had  turned 
their  attention  to  inventing  in  the  same  direction,  or  to  improving 
upon  Mr.  Howe’s  devices.  We  have  before  us  three  handbills,  which 
show  that,  in  1849,  a sewing  machine  was  carried  about  in  Western 
New  York  and  exhibited  as  a curiosity,  at  a charge  of  twelve  and  a 
half  cents  for  admission.  At  Ithaca  the  following  bill  was  posted 
about  in  May,  1849,  a few  weeks  after  the  inventor’s  return  from 
Europe : 

“A  GREAT  CURIOSITY!! 

THE 

YANKEE  SEWING  MACHINE 

IS  NOW 

Exhibiting  at  this  Place 

From  8 A.  M.  to  3 P.  M.” 


The  public  were  informed,  by  other  bills,  that  this  wonderful  ma- 
chine could  make  a pair  of  pantaloons  in  forty  minutes,  and  do  the 
work  of  six  hands.  The  people  of  Ithaca,  it  appears,  attended  the 
exhibition  in  great  numbers,  and  many  ladies  carried  home  speci- 
mens of  the  sewing,  which  they  preserved  as  curiosities.  But  this 
-was  not  all.  Some  machinists  and  others  in  Boston  and  elsewhere, 
were  making  sewing  machines  in  a rude,  imperfect  manner,  several 
of  which  had  been  sold  to  manufacturers,  and  were  in  daily  operation. 

The  inventor,  upon  inspecting  these  crude  products,  saw  that  they 
all  contained  the  devices  which  he  had  first  combined  and  patented. 
Poor  as  he  was,  he  was  not  disposed  to  submit  to  this  infringement, 
and  he  began  forthwith  to  prepare  for  war  against  the  infringers. 
When  he  entered  upon  this  litigation  he  was  a journeyman  machin- 
ist; his  machine  and  his  letters  patent  were  in  pawn  three  thousand 
miles  away,  and  the  patience,  if  not  the  purses  of  his  friends  was  ex- 
hausted. When  the  contest  ended  a leading  branch  of  the  national 
industry  was  tributary  to  him.  The  first  step  was  to  get  back  from 
England  that  first  machine  and  the  document  issued  from  the  Patent 
Office.  In  the  course  of  the  summer  of  1849  he  contrived  to  raise  the 
hundred  dollars  requsite  for  their  deliverance,  and  the  Hon.  Ansom 
Burlingame,  who  was  going  to  London  kindly  undertook  to  hunt 
them  up  in  the  wilderness  of  Surrey.  He  found  them,  and  sent  them 
home  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  The  inventor  wrote  polite 
letters  to  the  infringers,  warning  them  to  desist,  and  offering  to  sell 


10  History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 

them  licenses  to  continue.  All  but  one  of  them,  it  appears,  were  dis- 
posed to  acknowledge  his  rights  and  to  accept  his  proposal.  That 
one  induced  the  others  to  resist,  and  nothing  remained  but  to  resort 
to  the  courts.  Assisted  by  his  father  the  inventor  began  a suit,  but 
he  was  soon  made  aware  that  justice  is  a commodity  much  beyond 
the  means  of  a journeyman  mechanic.  He  tried  to  rc-awaken  the 
faith  of  George  Fisker,  and  induce  him  to  furnish  the  sinews  of  war, 
but  George  Fisker  had  had  enough  of  the  sewing  machine  ; he  would 
sell  his  half  of  the  patent  for  what  it  had  cost  him,  but  he  would  ad- 
vance no  more  money.  Mr.  Howe  then  looked  about  for  some  one 
who  would  buy  George  Fisher’s  share.  He  found  three  men  who 
agreed  to  do  this,  and  tried  to  do  it,  but  could  not  raise  the  money. 


Mr.  Howe  again  in  America , Encounters  the  Infringers  oj  his  Patent. 

The  person  to  whom  he  was  finally  indebted  for  the  means  of  se- 
curing his  rights  was  George  \V.  Bliss,  of  Massachusetts,  who  was 
prevailed  upon  to  buy  Mr.  Fisher’s  share  of  the  patent,  and  to  ad- 
vance the  money  needful  for  carrying  on  the  suits.  He  did  this  only 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine.  17 

as  a speculation.  He  thought  there  might  something  in  this  new" 
notion  of  sewing  by  machinery,  and  if  there  was,  the  machine  must 
become  universal  and  yield  large  revenues.  This  might  be;  he  even 
thought  it  probable ; still,  so  weak  was  his  faith,  that  he  consented  to 
embark  in  the  enterprise  only  on  condition  of  his  being  secured 
against  loss  by  a mortgage  on  the  farm  of  the  inventor’s  father. 
This  generous  parent — who  is  still  living  in  Cambridge — came  once 
more  to  the  rescue,  and  thus  secured  his  son’s  fortune.  The  suits 
wrent  on;  but,  as  they  went  on  at  the  usual  pace  of  patent  cases,  the 
inventor  had  abundant  leisure  to  push  his  invention  out  of  doors. 

Towards  the  close  of  1850  wre  find  him  in  New  York,  superintend- 
ing the  construction  of  fourteen  sewdng  machines  at  a shop  in  Gold 
street,  adjoining  which  he  had  a small  office,  furnished  with  a five 
dollar  desk  and  two  fifty'  cent  chairs.  One  of  these  machines  was  ex- 
hibited at  the  Fair  in  Castle  Garden,  in  October,  1851,  where,  for  the 
space  of  two  vreeks,  it  sewed  gaiters,  pantaloons  and  other  work. 
Several  of  them  were  sold  to  a boot  maker  in  Worcester,  who  used 
them  for  sewdng  boot  legs  with  perfect  success.  Two  or  three  others 
were  daily  operated  in  Broadway,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  purchas- 
ers. We  can  say,  therefore,  of  Elias  Howe,  that  besides  inventing 
the  sewing  machine,  and  besides  making  the  first  machine  with  his 
own  hands,  he  brought  his  invention  to  the  point  of  its  successful 
employment  in  manufacture. 

While  he  was  thus  engaged  events  occurred  which  seriously  threat- 
ened to  rob  him  of  all  the  benefit  of  his  invention.  The  ingfringers 
of  his  patent  were  not  men  of  large  means  nor  of  extraordinary 
energy,  and  they  had  no  “case”  whatever.  ,There  was  the  machine 
which  Elias  Howe  had  made  in  1845,  there  were  his  letters  patent, 
and  all  the  sewing  machines  then  known  to  be  in  existence  were  es- 
sentially the  same  as  his;  but  in  August,  1850,  a man  became  invol- 
ved with  the  infringers  who  was  of  very  different  mettle  from  those 
steady  going  Yankees,  and  capable  ot  carrying  on  a much  more  vig- 
orous warfare  than  they  ; this  was  that  Isaac  Merritt  Singer  who 
has  since  so  often  astonished  the  Fifth  Avenue,  and  is  now  amusing 
Paris  by  the  oddity  and  splendor  of  his  equipages.  He  urns  then  a 
poor  and  baffled  adventurer.  He  had  been  an  actor  and  manager  of 
a theatre,  and  had  tried  his  hand  at  various  enterprises,  none  of 
which  had  been  very  successful.  In  1850  he  invented  (as  he  has 
since  sworn)  a carving  machine,  and  having  obtained  an  order  for 
one  from  Boston,  he  made  it,  and  took  it  himself  to  Boston.  In  the 
shop  in  which  he  placed  his  carving  machine  he  saw  for  the  first 


1 8 ' History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 

time,  several  sewing  machines  brought  there  for  repairs.  Orson  C. 
Phelps,  the  proprietor  of  the  shop  (Mr.  Singer  says),  showed  him 
one  of  these  machines,  and  said  to  him  that  “ if  it  could  be  improved 
so  as  to  render  it  capable  of  doing  a greater  variety  of  work,  it  would 
be  a good  thing,”  and  if  Mr.  Singer  could  accomplish  this,  he  could 
get  more  money  from  sewing  than  from  carving  machines;  where- 
upon Mr.  Singer  contemplated  the  apparatus,  and  at  night  meditated 
upon  it  with  so  much  success  that  he  was  able  in  the  morning  to  ex- 
hibit a drawing  of  an  improved  machine.  This  sketch  (so  he  swears)' 
contained  three  original  devices,  which  to  this  day  form  part  of  the 
sewing  machine  made  by  the  Singer  Company.  This  sketch  being 
approved,  the  next  thing  was  to  construct  a model.  Mr.  Singer 
having  no  money,  the  purchaser  of  his  carving  machine  agreed  to  ad- 
vance fifty  dollars  for  the  purpose,  upon  which  Mr.  Singer  flew  at 
the  work  like  a tiger. 

“I  worked,”  he  says,  “day  and  night,  sleeping  but  three  or  four 
hours  out  of  the  twenty-four,  and  eating  generally  but  once  a day,  as 
I knew  I must  get  a machine  made  for  forty  dollars  or  not  get  it 
at  all.  The  machine  was  completed  the  night  of  the  eleventh  day 
from  the  day  it  was  commenced.  About  nine  o’clock  that  evening 
we  got  the  parts  of  the  machine  together  and  commenced  trying  it. 
The  first  attempt  to  sew  was  unsuccessful,  and  the  workmen,  who 
were  tired  out  with  almost  unremitting  work,  left  me  one  by  one,  in- 
timating that  it  was  a failure.  I continued  trying  the  machine,  with 
Zieber”  (who  furnished  the  forty  dollars)  “to  hold  the  lamp  for  me, 
but,  in  the  nervous  condition  to  which  I had  been  reduced  by  inces- 
sant work  and  anxiety,  was  unsuccssful  in  getting  the  machine  to 
sew  tight  stitches.  About  midnight  I started  with  Zieber  to  the 
hotel  where  I boarded.  Upon  the  way  we  sat  down  on  a pile  of 
boards,  and  Zieber’  asked  me  if  I had  noticed  that  the  loose  loops 
of  thread  on  the  upper  side  of  the  cloth  came  from  the  needle.  It 
then  flashed  upon  me  that  I had  forgotten  to  adjust  the  tension  upon 
the  needle  thread.  Zieber  and  I went  back  to  the  shop.  I adjusted 
the  tension,  tried  the  machine,  and  sewed  five  stitches  perfectly,  when 
the  thread  broke.  The  perfection  of  those  stitches  satisfied  me  that  the 
machine  was  a success,  and  I stopped  work,  went  to  the  hotel  and 
had  a sound  sleep.  By  three  o’clock  the  next  day  I had  the  machine 
finished,  and  started  with  it  to  New  York,  where  I emploved  Mr. 
Charles  Keller  to  get  a patent  for  it.” 

Such  was  the  introduction  to  the  sewing  machine  of  the  man 
whose  energy  and  audacity  forced  the  machine  upon  an  unbelieving 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


19 


public.  He  borrowed  a little  money,  and,  forming  a partnership 
with  his  Boston  patron  and  the  machinist  in  whose  shop  he  had 
made  his  model,  began  the  manufacture  of  the  machines.  Great  and 
numerous  were  the  difficulties  which  arose  in  his  path,  but  one  by 
one  he  overcame  them  all.  He  advertised,  he  travelled,  he  sent  out 
agents,  he  procured  the  insertion  of  articles  in  the  newspapers,  he  ex- 
hibited the  machine  at  fairs  in  town  and  country.  Several  times  he 
was  upon  the  point  of  failure,  but  in  the  nick  of  time  something  al- 
ways happened  to  save  him,  and  year  after  year  he  advanced  toward 
an  assured  success.  We  well  remember  his  early  efforts,  when  he  had 
only  the  back  part  of  a small  store  in  Broadway  and  a little  shop  over 
a railroad  depot ; and  we  remember  also  the  general  incredulity  with 
regard  to  the  value  of  the  machine  with  which  his  name  was  identified. 
Even  after  hearing  him  explain  it  at  great  length  we  were  very  far 
from  expecting  to  see  him,  one  day,  riding  to  the  Central  Park  in  a 
French  diligence , drawn  by  five  horses  paid  for  by  the  sewing  machine. 

Mr.  Singer  had  not  been  long  in  the  business  before  he  was  remind- 
ed by  Elias  Howe  that  he  was  infringing  his  patent  of  5,346.  The 
adventurer  threw  all  his  energy  and  his  growing  means  into  the  contest 
against  the  original  inventor.  The  great  object  of  the  infringing 
interest  was  to  discover  an  earlier  inventor  than  Elias  Howe.  For 
this  purpose  the  patent  records  of  England,  France  and  the  United 
States  were  most  diligently  searched;  encyclopaedias  were  examined, 
and  an  attempt  was  even  made  to  show  that  the  Chinese  had  possessed 
a sewing  machine  for  ages.  Nothing,  however,  was  discovered  that 
Avould  have  made  a plausible  defence  until  Mr.  Singer  joined  the  in- 
fringers. He  ascertained  that  a New  York  mechanic,  named  Walter 
Hunt,  who  had  a small  machine  shop  up  a narrow  alley  in  Abingdon 
Square,  had  made,  or  tried  to  make  a sewing  machine  as  early  as  1832. 
Walter  Hunt  was  found.  He  had  attempted  to  invent  a sewing  ma- 
chine in  1832  ; and,  what  was  more  important,  he  had  hit  upon  the 
shuttle  as  the  means  of  forming  the  stitch.  He  said,  too,  that  he  had 
made  a machine  which  did  sew  a little,  but  very  imperfectly,  and,  after 
wearying  himself  with  fruitless  experiments,  he  had  thrown  it  aside. 
Parts  of  this  machine,  after  a great  deal  of  trouble,  mere  actually  found 
among  a quantity  of  rubbish  in  the  garret  of  a house  in  Gold  street. 
Here  was  a discovery  ! Could  Mr.  Hunt  take  these  parts,  all  rusty 
and  broken,  into  his  shop,  and  complete  the  machine  as  originally 
made,  so  that  it  would  sew?  He  thought  he  could.  Ursred  on  bv  the 
indefatigable  Singer,  supplied  by  him  with  money,  and  stimulated  by 
the  prospect  of  fortune,  Walter  Hunt  tried  hard  and  long  to  put  his 


20 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


machine  together,  and  when  he  found  that  he  could  not,  he  employed 
an  ingenious  inventor  to  aid  him  in  the  work;  but  their  united  inge- 
nuity was  unequal  to  the  performance  of  an  impossibility — the  ma- 
chine could  not  be  got  to  sew  a seam.  The  fragments  found  in  the 
garret  did,  indeed,  demonstrate  that  in  1832  Walter  Hunt  had  been 
upon  the  track  of  the  invention  ; but  they  also  proved  that  he  had  given 
up  the  chase  in  despair  long  before  coming  up  with  the  game. 


Elias  Howe  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  claiming  his  Rights. 


And  this  the  Courts  have  uniformly  held.  In  the  year  1S54,  after  a 
long  trial,  Judge  Sprague,  of  Massachusetts,  decided  that  “the  plain- 
tiff’s patent  is  valid,  and  the  defendant’s  machine  is  an  infringement.” 
The  plaintiff  was  Elias  Howe;  the  real  infringer,  I.  M.  Singer. 
Judge  Sprague  further  observed,  that  “there  is  no  evidence  in  this 
case  that  leaves  a shadow  of  doubt  that,  for  all  the  benefits  conferred 
upon  the  public  by  the  introduction  of  a sewing  machine  the  public 
are  indebted  to  Elias  Howe.” 

This  decision  was  made  when  nine  years  had  elapsed  since  the 


History  of  the  Serving  Machine.  21 

completion  of  the  first  machine,  and  when  eight  years  of  the  term  of 
the  first  patent  had  expired.  The  patent,  however,  even  then,  was  so 
little  productive,  that  the  inventor,  embarrassed  as  he  was,  was  able, 
upon  £he  death  of  his  partner,  Mr.  Bliss,  to  buy  his  share  of  it.  He 
thus  became,  for  the  first  time,  the  sole  proprietor  of  his  patent ; and 
this  occurred  just  when  it  was  about  to  yield  a princely  revenue.  From 
a few  hundreds  a year  his  income  rapidly  increased,  until  it  went  be- 
yond two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  He  has  received  in  all,  up  to  the 
present  time,  about  seventeen  hundred  thousand  dollars.  By  the  time 


Elias  Hovoe  the  complete  victor. 


the  extension  of  the  patent  expires,  September  10,  1867,  the  amount 
will  not  fall  short  of  the  round  two  millions.  As  Mr.  Howe  has 
devoted  twenty-seven  years  of  his  life  to  the  invention  and  develop- 
ment of  the  sewing  machine,  the  public  have  compensated  him  at  the 
rate  of  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  a year.  It  has  cost  him,  however, 
immense  sums  to  defend  his  rights,  and  he  is  now  very  far  from  being 
the  richest  of  the  sewing  machine  kings.  He  has  the  inconvenient 


2 2 • History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 

reputation  of  being  worth  four  millions,  which  is  exactly  ten  times  the 
value  of  his  present  estate. 

So  much  for  the  inventor.  In  speaking  of  the  improvers  of  the 
sewing  machine,  we  know  not  how  to  be  cautious  enough  ; for  scarcely 
anything  can  be  said  on  that  branch  of  the  subject  which  some  one  has 
not  an  interest  to  deny.  We  the  other  day  looked  over  the  testimony 
taken  in  one  of  the  suits  which  Messrs.  Grover  & Baker  have  had  to 
sustain  in  defence  of  their  well  known  “stitch.”  The  testimony  in 
that  single  case  fills  two  immense  volumes,  containing  three  thousand 
five  hundred  and  seventy-five  pages.  At  theWHEELER  & Wilson  estab- 
lishment on  Broadway  there  is  a library  of  similar  volumes,  resembling 
in  appearance  a quantity  of  London  and  Paris  Directories.  .The 
Singer  Company  are  equally  blessed  with  sewing  machine  literature, 
and  Mr.  Howe  has  chests  full  of  it.  We  learn  from  these  volumes 
that  there  is  no  useful  device  connected  with  the  apparatus  the  inven- 
tion of  which  is  not  claimed  by  more  than  one  person.  And  no 
wonder.  If  to-day  the  ingenious  reader  could  invent  the  slightest 
real  improvement  to  the  sewing  machine,  so  real  that  a machine  having 
it  Avould  possess  an  obvious  advantage  over  all  machines  that  had  it 
not,  and  he  should  sell  the  right  to  use  that  improvement  at  so  low 
a rate  as  fifty  cents  for  each  machine,  he  would  find  himself  in  the 
enjoyment  of  an  income  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  per  annum. 
The  consequence  is,  that  the  number  pf  patents  already  issued  in  the 
United  States  for  sewing  machines  and  improvements  in  sewing  ma- 
chines, is  about  nine  hundred.  Perhaps  thirty  of  these  patents  are  val- 
uable, but  the  great  improvements  are  not  more  than  ten  in  number, 
and  most  of  those  were  made  in  the  infancy  of  the  machine. 

By  general  consent  of  the  able  men  who  are  now  conducting  the 
sewing  machine  business  (including  Elias  Howe),  the  highest  place  in 
’the  list  of  improvers  is  assigned  to  Allen  B.  Wilson.  This  most  in- 
genious gentleman  completed  a practical  sewing  machine  early  in 
1849,  without  ever  having  seen  one,  and  without  having  any  know- 
ledge of  the  devices  of  Elias  Howe,  who  was  then  buried  alive  in 
London.  Mr.  Wilson,  at  the  time,  was  a very  young  journeyman 
cabinet  maker,  living  in  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts.  After  that  despe- 
rate contest  with  difficulty  which  inventors  usually  experience  he  pro- 
cured a patent  for  his  machine,  improved  it,  and  formed  a connec- 
tion with  a young  carriage  maker  of  his  acquaintance,  Nathaniel 
Wheeler,  who  had  some  capital,  and  thus  was  founded  the  house  of 
Wheeler  & Wilson.  These  gentlemen  were  honest  enough  in  oppos- 
ing the  claim  of  Elias  Howe,  since  Mr.  Wilson' knew  himself  to  be 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


23 


an  original  inventor,  and  he  employed  devices  not  to  be  found  in  Mr. 
Howe’s  machine.  Instead  of  a shuttle,  he  used  a “rotating  hook” — a 
device  as  ingenious  as  any  in  mechanism.  The  “ four-motion  feed,”  too 
was  another  of  Mr.  Wilson’s  masterly  inventions,  sufficient  of  itself  to 
stamp  him  an  inventor  of  genius.  Nothing,  therefore,  was  more  natu- 
ral than  that  Messrs.  Wheeler  & Wilson  should  regard  Mr.  Howe’s 
charge  of  infringement  with  astonishment  and  indignation,  and  join 
in  the  contest  against  him. 

Messrs.  Grover  & Baker  were  early  in  the  field.  William  O. 
Grover  was  a Boston  tailor,  whose  attention  was  directed  to  the  sew- 
ing machine  soon  after  Mr.  Howe’s  return  from  Europe.  It  was  he 
who,  after  numberless  trials,  invented  the  devices  by  which  the  “ Gro- 
ver & Baker”  stitch  is  formed. 

When,  by  the  decision  of  the  courts,  all  the  makers  had  become 
tributary  to  Elias  Howe,  paying  him  a certain  sum  for  each  machine 
made,  then  a most  violent  warfare  broke  out  among  the  leading 
houses — Singer  & Company,  Wheeler  & Wilson,  Grover  & Baker — 
each  accusing  the  others  concerned  of  infringment.  At  Albany,  in 
1856,  these  causes  were  to  be  tried,  and  parties  saw  before  them  a good 
three  months’  work  in  court.  By  a lucky  chance  one  member  of  this 
happy  family  had  not  entirely  lost  his  temper,  and  was  still  in  some 
degree  capable  of  using  his  intellect.  It  occurred  to  this  wise  head 
that  no  matter  who  invented  first,  or  who  second,  there  were  then  as- 
sembled at  Albany  the  men  who,  among  them,  held  patents  which  con- 
trolled the  whole  business  of  making  sewing  machines, ’and  that  it 

would  be  infinitely  better  for  them  to  combine  and  control  than  to 

♦ 

contend  with  and  devour  one  another.  They  all  came  into  this  opinion, 
and  thus  was  formed  the  “ Combination  ” of  which  such  terrible  things 
are  uttered  by  the  surreptitious  makers  of  sewing  machines.  Elias 
Howe,  who  is  the  best  tempered  man  in  the  world,  and  only  too  easy 
in  matters  pecuniary,  had  the  complaisance  to  join  this  confederation, 
only  insisting  that  at  least  twenty-four  licenses  should  be  issued  by  it, 
so  as  to  prevent  the  manufacture  from  sinking  into  a monopoly.  By 
the  terms  of  this  agreement  Mr.  Howe  was  to  receive  five  dollars 
upon  every  machine  sold  in  the  United  States,  and  one  dollar  upon 
each  one  exported.  The  other  parties  agreed  to  sell  licenses  to  use 
their  various  devices,  or  any  of  them,  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  dollars  for 
each  machine ; but  no  license  was  to  be  granted  without  the  con- 
sent of  all  the  parties.  It  was  further  agreed  that  part  of  the  license 
fees  received  should  be  reserved  as  a fund  for  the  prosecution  of  in- 
fringers. This  agreement  remained  unchanged  until  the  renewal  of 


24  History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 

Mr.  Howe’s  patent  in  i860,  when  his  fee  was  reduced  from  five  dollars 
to  one  dollar,  and  that  of  the  combination  from  fifteen  dollars  to  seven. 
That  is  to  say,  every  sewing  machine  honestly  made,  pays  Elias  Howe 
one  dollar ; and  every  sewing  machine  made,  which  includes  any  de- 
vice or  devices,  the  patent  for  which  is  held  by  any  other  member 
of  the  Combination,  pays  seven  dollars  to  the  Combination.  Of  this 
seven  dollars  Mr.  Howe  receives  his  one,  and  the  other  six  go  into 
the  fund  for  the  defence  of  the  patents  against  infringers. 

For  example,  take  the  Wilcox  & Gibbs  machine — the  only  One,  as 
far  as  we  know,  which  was  not  invented  by  a Yankee,  or  in  Yankee  land. 
Twelve  years  ago,  Mr.  James  E.  A.  Gibbs,  a Virginia  farmer,  saw  in  the 
Scientific  American  a picture  of  a sewing  machine.  Being  a man  of  a 
decided  turn  for  mechanics  he  examined  the  drawing  with  great  at- 
tention ; but  as  it  exhibited  only  the  upper  part  of  the  machine,  he 
could  form  no  idea  of  the  contrivance  underneath  by  which  the  stitch 
was  formed. . The  ivorking  of  the  apparatus  was,  however,  very  plain, 
down  to  the  moment  when  the  needle  perforates  the  cloth,  and  he  fell 
in  the  habit  of  musing  upon  the  course  of  events  after  the  point  of  the 
needle  was  lost  to  view.  The  result  of  his  cogitations,  aided  by  infi- 
nite whittling,  was  the  ingenious  little  revolving  hook  which  consti- 
tutes the  peculiarity  of  the  Wilcox  & Gibbs  machine.  But  that 
machine,  besides  employing  Mr.  Gibb’s  invention,  uses  the  feeding 
apparatus  of  Allen  B.  Wilson  and  the  eye-pointed  needle  of  Elias 
Howe.  It  is  therefore  tributary  to  the  Combination,  and  pays  it 
seven  dollars  for  each  machine.  A similar  historv  could  be  related 
of  the  “Florence,”  the  “Weed,”  the  “Elliptic,”  the  “Empire,”  and 
others.  All  these  machines  are  worth  examination  by  those  who  are 
curious  in  mechanical  devices. 

The  business  of  making  and  selling  sewing  machines,  which  was 
not  fairly  started  before  1856,  has  attained  a truly  wonderful  devel- 
opment. Twenty-seven  firms  or  companies  have  been  engaged  in  it 
at  one  time,  a few  of  which  have  lately  withdrawn,  leaving  about 
twenty  still  in  the  business.  One  of  these  has  twenty-four  stores  of  its 
own  in  the  large  cities  of  the  world,  besides  a much  larger  number  of 
local  agents.  Another  boasts  that  there  are  thirty-nine  cities  on  this 
planet  where  its  machines  can  be  bought  at  all  times.  We  can  our- 
selves bear  witness  that,  in  such  cities  as  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis  and 
Chicago,  each  of  the  well  known  makers  has  a spacious  and  elegant 
establishment,  with  all  the  appurtenances  to  which  we  are  accustom- 
ed in  New  York.  In  Australia  one  of  the  New  York  companies,  at 
least,  has  an  establishment  of  its  own. 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine.  25 

Gentlemen  best  acquainted  with  the  business  compute  that  the 
whole  number  of  sewing  machines  made  in  the  United  States,  up  to 
the  close  of  the  year  1866,  was  about  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand. During  the  quarter  ending  December  10,  1866,  the  number  of 
machines  made  by  licensed  companies,  as  reported  by  them  to  Elias 
Howe,  was  52,219  ! This  is  above  the  rate  of  two  hundred  thousand 
per  annum.  Mr.  Howe  is  of  opinion  that  about  half  as  many  more 
are  produced  by  unlicensed  makers,  including  the  Yankees,  who, 
driven  from  the  United  States  by  the  Combination,  have  set  up  their 
factories  on  the  other  side  of  the  Canada  line.  If  his  conjecture  is 
correct,  we  are  now  producing  the  astounding  and  almost  incredi- 
ble number  of  one  thousand  sewing  machines  every  working  day,  at 
an  average  cost  to  the  purchaser  of  sixty  dollars  each.  The  world, 
however,  is  a very  large  place,  and  America  still  supplies  it  with 
most  of  its  sewing  machines.  When  we  visit  single  establishments 
in  New  England  wdiich  employ  five  hundred  machines,  when  we 
learn  that  the  shirt  makers  of  one  city,  Troy,  are  now  running  more 
than  three  thousand  of  them,  and  when  we  consider  that  there  are  in 
the  United  States  six  millions  of  families,  most  of  whom  mean  to  have 
a sewing  machine  when  they  can  afford  it,  we  can  believe  that  even 
so  many  as  a thousand  a day  may  be  absorbed.  About  one-fifth  of  all 
the  machines  made  in  the  United  States  are  exported  to  foreign  coun- 
tries. Elias  Howe,  Jr.,  Wheeler  & Wilson,  Grover  & Baker,  Singer 
& Company,  Wilcox  & Gibbs,  the  Florence  and  others,  are  familiar 
names  in  St.  Petersburg,  Paris,  London,  Berlin,  Vienna,  Madrid,  Mel- 
bourne, Mexico,  Rio  Janeiro,  Havana,  Valparaiso,  Vancouver’s  Is- 
land, and  wherever  else  in  the  world  many  stitches  are  taken.  For- 
eigners can  no  more  make  a Yankee  sewing  machine  than  they  can 
make  a Yankee  clock.  They  have  not  the  machinery— as  curious  as 
the  machine  itself — by  which  each  part  of  the  apparatus  is  made  at  the 
minimum  of  expense,  and  with  perfect  certainty  of  excellence.  To 
found  a sewing  machine  manufactory  in  Europe  which  could  com- 
pete with  those  of  America,  would  involve  an  expenditure  of  two 
millions  of  dollars,  and  the  expatriation  of  several  of  our  American 
foremen.  It  is  only  upon  a great  scale  that  machines  can  be  made 
well  or  profitably. 

By  means  of  the  various  improvements  and  attachments  the  sew- 
ing machine  now  performs  nearly  all  that  the  needle  ever  did.  It 
seams,  hems,  tucks,  binds,  stitches,  quilts,  gathers,  fells,  braids,  and  em- 
broiders and  makes  button-holes.  It  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
every  garment  worn  by  man,  woman  or  child.  Firemen’s  caps,  the  en- 


26 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


gine  hose  which  firemen  use,  sole  leather  trunks,  harness,  carriage 
curtains  and  linings,  buffalo  robes,  horse  blankets,  horse  collars,  pow- 
der flasks,  mailbags,  sails,  awnings,  whips,  saddles,  corsets,  hats,  caps, 
valises,  pocket-books,  trusses,  suspenders,  are  among  the  articles 
made  by  its  assistance;  but  it  is  employed  quite  as  usefully  in  mak- 
ing kid  gloves,  parasols,  and  the  most  delicate  article  of  ladies’  attire. 


Elias  Howe  receiving  the  highest  honors  France  can  confer. 


Some  of  our  readers,  perhaps,  witnessed  the  show,  in  New  York, 
of  the  shoes,  gaiters,  and  ladies’  boots  made  for  the  Paris  Exhibition. 
They  were  of  all  degrees  of  delicacy,  from  the  stout  Balmoral  to  the 
boot  of  kid,  satin  or  velvet ; and  ever)'  kind  of  stitch  had  been  em- 
ployed in  their  manufacture.  Some  of  the  stitches  were  so  fine  that 
they  could  not  be  distinctly  seen  without  a magnifying  glass,  and 
some  were  as  coarse  and  strong  as  those  of  men’s  boots.  The  special 
wonder  of  this  display  was  that  every  stitch  in  every  one  of  those 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


27 


beautiful  shoes  was  executed  by  the  machine.  Mr.  E.  C.  Burt,  who 
made  this  splendid  contribution  to  the  Exhibition,  assured  us,  and 
will  assure  the  universe  in  general  in  Paris,  that  all  this  variety  of 
elegant  and  durable  work  was  performed  on  the  “Howe  Sewing  Ma- 
chine.” Upon  ordinary  boots  and  shoes  the  machine  has  long  been 
employed,  but  it  is  only  recently  that  any  one  has  attempted  to  apply 
it  to  the  manufacture  of  those  dainty  things  which  ladies  wear  upon 
their  feet  when  they  go  forth,  armed  cap-a-pie  for  conquest.  A similar 
change  has  occurred  in  other  branches  of  manufacture.  As  operators 
have  increased  in  skill,  and  as  the  special  capabilities  of  the  different 
machines  have  been  better  understood,  finer  kinds  of  work  have  been 
done  upon  them  than  used  to  be  thought  possible.  Some  young 
ladies  have  developed  a kind  of  genius  for  the  sewing  machine ; the 
apparatus  has  fascinated  them ; they  execute  marvels  upon  it,  as 
Gottschalk  did  upon  the  piano.  One  of  the  most  recent  applications 
of  the  machine  is  to  the  sewing  of  straw  hats  and  bonnets.  A Yankee 
in  Connecticut  has  invented  attachments  by  which  the  finest  braids 
are  sewn  into  bonnets  of  any  form. 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  estimate  the  value,  in  money,  of  the 
sewing  machine  to  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Professor  Ren- 
wick,  who  has  made  the  machine  a particular  study,  expressed  the 
opinion  seven  years  ago,  on  oath,  that  the  saving  in  labor  then 
amounted  to  nineteen  millions  of  dollars  per  annum.  Messrs.  Wheeler 
& Wilson  have  published  an  estimate  which  indicates  that  the  total  val- 
ue of  the  labor  performed  by  the  sewing  machine,  in  1863,  was  three 
hundred  and  forty-two  millions  of  dollars.  A good  hand  sewer  aver- 
ages thirty-five,  stitches  per  minute;  the  fastest  machine,  on  some 
kinds  of  work,  performs  three  thousand  a minute.  There  are  in  a 
good  shirt  20,620  stitches — what  a saving  to.  do  them  at  machine 
speed!  We  glean  from  the  volumes  of  testimony  before  us  a few 
similar  facts.  The  stitching  of  a man’s  hat  by  hand  requires  fifteen 
minutes;  by  machine  one  minute.  One  girl  can  do  the  sewing  by 
machine  of  as  many  boys’  caps  as  ten  men  can  do  by  hand.  In  fine 
clothing  for  men  the  saving  is,  of  course,  not  so  great.  Messrs. 
Brooks  Brothers,  of  New  York,  say  that  the  making  of  a first-rate 
overcoat  by  hand  requires  six  days  steady  sewing;  by  machine,  three 
days.  In  the  general  work  of  a tailor  the  machine  saves  a journey- 
man about  four  hours  in  twelve.  Carriage  trimmers  testify  that  one 
machine  and  three  hands  are  equivalent  to  eleven  hands.  In  the  trass 
and  bandage  business,  which  is  one  of  very  great  extent  and  import- 
ance, one  machine  is  equal  to  ten  women.  In  the  manufacture  of 


28 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


bags  for  flour,  salt  and  meal,  of  which  the  city  of  New  York  produces 
two  millions  of  dollars’  worth  per  annum,  a machine  does  the  work 
of  nine  girls.  In  mere  hemming,  on  a machine  fitted  expressly  for 
the  purpose,  one  machine  does  the  work  of  fifty  girls. 

Yet  where  is  the  woman  who  can  say  that  her  sewing  is  less  a tax 
upon  her  time  and  strength  than  it  was  before  the  sewing  machine 
came  in?  But  this  is  not  the  machine’s  fault;  it  is  the  fault  of  hu- 
man nature.  As  soon  as  lovely  woman  discovers  that  she  can  set  ten 
stitches  in  the  time  that  one  used  to  require,  a fury  siezes  her  to  put 
ten  times  as  many  stitches  in  every  garment  as  she  formerly  did. 
Tailors  and  seamstresses,  not  content  with  sewing  the  seams  of  gar- 
ments, must  needs  cover  them  with  figures  executed  by  “stitching.” 
And  thus  it  is  that  man  never  is,  but  always  to  be,  blest.  If  with  one 
part  of  his  brain  he  invents  a labor-saving  apparatus,  the  other  lobes 
immediately  create  as  much  new  labor  as  the  apparatus  saves.  But 
it  is  this  chase  of  Desire  after  Ability  which  keeps  the  world  moving, 
and  tends  always  to  equalize  the  lot  of  men.  The  sewing  machine  is 
one  of  the  means  by  which  the  indnstrious  laborer  is  as  well  clad  as 
any  millionaire  need  be,  and  by  which  working  girls  are  enabled  safe- 
ly to  gratify  their  woman’s  instinct  of  decoration. 

Elias  Howe  can  justly  claim  that  it  was  his  invention  which  en- 
abled the  United  States  to  put  and  keep  a million  of  men  in  the  field 
during  the  war.  Those  countless  garments,  tents,  haversacks,  cart- 
ridge. boxes,  shoes,  blankets,  sails — how  could  they  have  been  pro- 
duced without  the  sewing  machine?  One  day  during  the  war,  at 
three  o’clock  in  the  afternoon,  an  order  from  the  War  Department 
reached  New  York  by  telegraph  for  fifty  thousand  sand  bags — such  as 
are  used  in  field  works.  By  two  o’clock  the  next  afternoon  the  bags 
had  been  made,  packed,  shipped,  and  started  southward. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  sewing  machine  it  was  not  supposed  that 
it  would  ever  come  into  general  use  in  families.  The  great  cost  of  the 
machine,  and  the  supposed  difficulty  of  learning  to  use  it,  were  con- 
sidered fatal  obstacles  to  its  general  introduction  into  households. 
The  price  has  now  been  reduced  to  sixty-five  dollars  for  the  cheap- 
est good  machines;  and  it  has  been  found  that  an  intelligent  woman 
can  learn  to  sew  with  it  in  an  hour.  An  average  seamstress  becomes 
proficient  in  the  use  of  it  in  a month.  For  some  time  past,  there- 
fore, the  great  object  of  the  celebrated  makers  is  to  produce  the  best 
family  machine.  This  is  the  point  of  rivalry  among  them. 

A lady  who  leaves  her  home,  after  a breakfast  consultation  with 
her  husband,  and  goes  forth  to  select  a family  sewing  machine,  has 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


29 


undertaken  an  expedition  which  promises  nothing  but  pleasure,  but 
it  does  not  perform  its  promise.  The  sewing  machine  establishments 
in  Broadwmy  are  numerous  and  splendid.  She  pauses  before  a mag- 
nificent marble  store,  with  windows  formed  of  single  panes  of  plate 
glass,  in  one  of  which  are  sewing  machines,  brilliant  with  polished 
steel,  silver  plate  and  rosewood,  and  in  the  other  are  beautiful  gar- 
ments, covered  with  miraculous  stitching,  executed  by  those  pretty 
parlor  ornaments.  Yielding  to  these  allurements  she  enters  a grand 
saloon,  a hundred  feet  long,  extending  back  to  another  street,  and 
covered  with  Wilton  carpet,  of  better  quality,  probably,  than  that 
which  she  treads  in  her  own  parlor.  Perhaps  the  walls  and  ceilings 
are  frescoed  ; and  if  they  are  not,  they  are  richly  papered  and  painted. 
Sewing  machines,  in  long  rows,  not  too  close  together  for  convenient 
moving  about,  agreeably  dot  the  whole  surface  of  the  apartment,  as 
far  as  the  eye  can  penetrate  the  gloom  of  the  distance.  Along  the 
wall,  at  the  farther  end  of  the  room,  she  will  discover,  by  and  by,  a 
row  of  enclosed  desks,  like  those  of  a bank,  each  desk  being  a small 
apartment,  as  elegant  and  commodious  as  taste  and  money  can  make 
it.  These  are  for  the  dignitaries  of  the  Company — the  president,  the 
treasurer,  the  cashier,  the  general  agent,  the  advertising  clerk.  Here 
and  there  a young  lady  may  be  seen  operating  one  of  the  machines, 
in  a graceful  attitude,  and  with  such  perfect  ease  as  to  dispel  the  fears 
of  a purchaser  most  distrustful  of  her  powers.  The  rapid  and  yet  not 
noisy  click  of  the  machine  is  cheering,  and  seems  the  appropriate 
music  of  the  place.  'And  this  grand  hall  is  only  one  of  many 
apartments.  The  basement,  and  the  cellar  below  the  basement,  each 
as  large  as  the  store,  are  occupied  as  depositories,  repairing  shops, 
packing  rooms  ; while  in  the  story  above  the  store  may  be  found  su- 
perb rooms,  wherein  ladies  who  have  bought  a machine  receive  in- 
struction in  the  art  of  using  it — attending  daily,  if  they  choose,  until 
they  have  become  proficient  in  hemming,  sewing,  braiding,  making 
button-holes,  and  in  all  the  other  varieties  of  needlework. 

The  clerk,  who  advances  to  wait  upon  the  lady,  soon  learns  her 
errand  and  discovers  her  ignorance;  indeed,  she  frankly  avows  her 
ignorance.  She  has  come  out,  she  artlessly  says,  in  pursuit  of  know- 
ledge ; she  desires  to  ascertain  which  is  the  best  sewing  machine  in 
existence  for  family  use.  Long  practice  has  taught  an  intelligent  and 
ambitious  young  man  how  to  deal  with  cases  of  this  kind.  He  does, 
in  his  inmost  soul,  believe  that  the  sewing  machines  made  by  the  com- 
pany he  serves  are  the  very  best  in  the  world,  especially  for  family  use; 
but  he  feels  the  delicacy  of  his  situation.  “Of  course,  madam,  we  are 


30 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine. 


interested  parties,  and  it  would  be  no  more  than ‘natural  that  we 
should  represent  our  machines  to  be  the  best  in  the  market.  But  it  is 
no  part  of  the  policy  of  our  company  to  disparage  those  made  by  our 
neighbors.  We  are  on  friendly  terms  with  them,  and  we  are  ready  to 
admit  that  some  of  them  do  make  machines  which  for  some  purposes 
are  excellent.  But  when  it  comes  to  machines  for  family  use,  which 
is  our  specialty,  why  then,  madam,  we  cannot  hesitate.  Upon  that 
point  there  can  be  but  one  opinion.  Nevertheless,  we  do  not  ask 
ladies  to  believe  what  we  say — we  show  them  what  our  machine  does, 
and  let  it  speak  for  itself.”  Conciliated  by  such  modesty  and  candor, 
the  lady  watches  with  pleasure  and  admiration,  while  one  dexterous 
young  lady  runs  up  a seam,  and  another  hems  a sheet,  and  another 
does  a little  quilting,  and  another  makes  a button-hole  in  half  a min- 
ute. The  lady  herself  takes  a seat  at  a machine,  and  is  astonished  to 
find  herself  sewing  at  a rattling  pace,  “ without  any  previous  instruc- 
tion.” 

She  is  convinced.  She  is  perfectly  satisfied.  She  sympathizes 
with  the  tender  compassion  expressed  by  the  clerk  for  the  great  num- 
ber of  ladies  who  have  been  deluded  into  buying  other  machines, 
which,  after  distracting  a household  for  many  months,  are  now  dis- 
carded and  consigned  to  the  garret.  “You  see  madam,  advertising 
can  force  a machine  on  the  market;  but,  in  the  long  run,  real  merit 
overcomes  all  opposition.”  She  assents  with  her  whole  soul  to  this 
proposition.  It  accords  with  what  she  has  observed  of  human  life. 
She  has  even  made  the  remark  herself. 

The  impulse  is  strong  within  her  to  buy  one  of  these  peerless  ma- 
chines on  the  spot,  and  she  has  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  she  shall 
do  so  in  the  course  of  the  day.  But  it  was  agreed  between  her  hus- 
band and  herself  that  she  should  examine  all  before  purchasing;  and 
so,  in  obedience  to  a stern  sense  of  duty,  she  resolves  to  go  through 
the  form — the  mere  form — of  looking  at  other  machines.  She  feels 
that  she  must  be  able  to  say  that  she  has  fulfilled  her  compact. 

In  another  spacious  and  elegant  saloon  another  accomplished 
clerk  claims  for  another  machine  precisely  the  same  excellencies, 
which  other  young  ladies  proceed  to  exhibit.  If  she  ventures  timidly 
to  intimate  that  she  has  been  looking  at  a machine  elsewhere,  the  ac- 
complished clerk  knows  well  how  to  proceed.  He  discourses  at 
large  upon  the  merits  of  all  the  machines.  He  exhibits  all  the  va- 
rieties of  needles  employed  in  them,  and  expatiates  upon  the  very 
complicated  machinery  used  to  propel  those  needles.  “Your  own 
common  sense  must  tell  you,  madam,  that  the  simpler  a piece  of 


History  of  the  Sewing  Machine.  31 

mechanism  is,  the  less  liable  it  is  to  get  out  of  order,  and  the  more 
easily  it  is  worked  by  an  inexperienced  person.  Now,  madam,  our 
machine  contains  eleven  pieces  less  than  any  other  in  the  market; 
and  your  own  common  sense  must  tell  you  that  every  piece  added  to 
a machine  makes  it  more  complicated,  and  more  easily  disarranged. 
Don’t  misunderstand  me,  madam,  I do  not  say  the  machine  you  ex- 
amined on  the  other  side  of  the  street  was  not  a very  good  one  in  its 
day;  but  some  people,  you  know,  when  they  have  a pretty  good 
thing,  are  satisfied,  and  don’t  keep  up  with  the  times.  However,  we 
never  speak  ill  ol  our  neighbors.  We  simply  show  what  our  ma- 
chine is,  and  what  it  can  do.  Your  own  common  sense  must  decide.” 

And  so  he  goes  on,  until  the  lady  shudders  to  think  what  a narrow 
escape  she  has  made  from  falling  a victim  to  the  wiles  of  the  brilliant 
young  man  who  first  entertained  her.  By  the  time  she  has  gone  the 
rounds  of  the  ten  or  twelve  sewing  machine  establishments  in  Broad- 
way, between  Canal  street  and  Union  Square,  she  is  in  a state  of 
mind  to  buy  a wheel-barrow  in  order  to  end  the  agonizing  struggle. 

It  is  but  just  to  add  that  all  the  well  known  makers  have  seized 
the  truth,  that  the  only  way  in  which  a business  permanently  great 
can  be  created,  is  by  serving  the  public  with  systematic  and  scrupu- 
lous fidelity.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  care  taken  by  them  all  that  no 
machine  shall  leave  the  factory  which  shall  not  be,  as  long  as  it  lasts, 
an  advertisement  for  the  company  whose  name  it  bears. 


32 


WHAT  ADVANTAGES 

HAS 

The  “Elias  Howe”  Machine 

OVER  OTHERS? 

First. — The  public  know  it  to  be  durable.  A conclusive  evidence  is, 
twenty  years  have  not  placed  second-hand  “ Howe  ” machines  in 
the  market.  It  cannot  be  said  of  any  other  machine. 

Second.— It  contains  the  material  for  its  own  repair. 

Third. — It  has  less  wearing  points  than  any  other. 

Fourth. — It  draws  up  a stitch  as  you  do  by  hand ; others  do  not. 

Fifth. — You  have  perfect  control  over  both  threads;  others  have  not. 

Sixth. — It  gives  off  thread  in  proportion  to  the  thickness  of  fabric  sewed, 
thereby  avoiding  slow  motion  over  seams,  dropping  stitches  and 
breaking  of  needles — a great  objection  to  all  other  machines. 

Seventh.— It  sews  a tight  seam  in  cassimere,  burying  the  thread  on 
either  side,  and  then  a tissue  paper,  without  change  of  tension. 

Eighth  . — The  presser  foot  is  easily  swung  out  of  the  way  when  you 
set  a needle  or  put  under  work.  It  is  not  so  with  any  other. 

Ninth. — Many  new  machine  companies  have  had  their  rise  and  fall — 
their  machines  once  popular  now  scarcely  known — others  have 
made  radical  changes  in  order  to  exist;  while  the  Howe  Machine 
Company  have  adhered  to  the  opinion  of  “ Elias  Howe,  Master 
of  Mechanics,”  (“The  machine  is  mechanically  correct;  does 
not  change,”)  built  addition  after  addition  to  their  factory,  and 
to-day  cannot  supply  the  demand,  although  turning  out  over 
six  hundred  machines  a day — more  than  a machine  a minute. 


33 


DUALITIES  WHICH  ARE  PECULIAR  TO 

AND 

recommend 

The  Howe  Sewing  Machine. 


1.  — Beauty  arid  excellence  of  stitch  alike  on  both  sides  of  the  fabric 

sewed. 

2.  — Strength,  beauty  and  durability  of  seam  that  will  neither  rip  nor 

ravel. 

3.  — Complete  control  over  both  threads. 

4:. — An  entirely  new  rotary  tension  for  the  upper  thread,  which  con- 
tributes so  much  to  that  beauty  and  uniformity  of  stitch  for 
which  the  “ Howe  Machine  ” is  so  celebrated. 

5. — A perfectly  uniform  tension  in  the  shuttle,  which  does  not  vary 
from  a full  to  an  empty  bobbin — an  objection  so  common  to 
other  machines. 

6—  An  automatic  self-regulating  take-up,  that  prevents  missing  of 
stitches  in  crossing  heavy  seams. 

7.  — Short,  straight  and  strong  needles,  not  liable  to  break  in  passing 

over  heavy  seams,  as  do  the  curved  needles  of  other  machines. 

8.  — Finer  needles  for  the  same  thread  than  any  other  machine. 

9.  — Sewing  equally  well  with  any  kind  of  thread. 

10.  — Economy  of  thread  beyond  that  of  any  other  machine. 

11.  — A Hemmer  that  will  make  any  width  of  Hem  or  Fell. 

12.  — Braiding  the  most  complicated  patterns  with  any  width  or  kind 

of  Braid. 

13.  — A Quilter  that  will  adjust  itself  to  any  thickness  of  material. 
u . — Tucking  any  fabric  without  injury  or  pucker. 

15.  — A Corder  so  constructed  as  to  cord  around  very  short  curves, 

even  to  square  corners. 

16.  — Sewing  the  finest  fabric  without  injury  or  pucker,  and  the 

heaviest  materials  with  the  greatest  ease.  ... 

17.  — Compactness,  simplicity  and  durability. 

18  . — Ease  of  operation  and  management. 


34 


THE  HOWE 

IMPROVED 

Family  Sewing  Machines, 


T£HEycK-  n Y 


No.  I . 


LETTER  A MACHINE. 

(ornamented) 

On  Oiled  Walnut  Table. 

Price,  Plain, $65  00 

Pearled  and  Plated,  70  00 
Extra  Pearled  and 

Plated,  75  00 


This  machine  is  capable 
of  the  same  range  and  va- 
riety of  work  as  the  high- 
er priced  machines. 


Many  of  the  Sewing  Machine  Companies  offer  a machine  poorly 
finished  at  from  five  to  ten  dollars  lower  in  price  than  any  on  our 
list.  The  Howe  Company  do  not  pretend  to  make  cheap  machines. 
Every  machine  represented  by  this  Circular  is  equally  well  finished 
(except  in  external  decoration),  has  the  same  attachments,  and  is  cap- 
able of  the  same  range  and  variety  of  work. 


35 


THE  HOWE 

Improrm^  Family  E>mwimg  laaiit 


No.  3. 


GOTHIC  COVER. 

Ornamented  Machine  and 
Iron  Stand,  Black  Wal- 
nut Table  and  Drawer, 


Gothic  Cover,  with 

Lock,  etc.,  $75  0o 

Pearled  and  Plated.  8o  oo 
Extra  Pearled  and 

Plated, 85  00 


No.  2. 


PANEL  COVER. 

Ornamental  Machine  and 
Iron  Stand,  Black  Wal- 
nut Table  and  Drawer, 


Paneled  Cover  with  Lock, 

etc.,  etc., $70  00 

Pearled  and  Plated,. „ 75  00 

Extra  Pearled  and 
Plated, 80  00 


36 

THE  HOWE 

Family  Sewing  li©Ma@§# 


No.  4. 


GOTHIC  COVER. 

BOEDER  TOP. 

Ornamented  Machine  and 
Iron  Stand,  Black  Walnut 
Table  and  Drawer,  Gothic 
Cover,  with  Lock,  Border 
Top  Table,  etc.,  . . . $70  00 
Pearled  and  Plated,.  75  00 
Extra  Pearled  and 

Plated, ...  80  00 


No.  5. 


LETTER  A MACHINE. 

(ORNAMENTED.) 

In  Black  Walnut  (oiled), 


Folding  Cover,...  $85  00 
In  Black  Walnut 
(polished),  Folding 
Cover, 90  co 


Pearled  and  Silver  Plated 
A M ACHINE. 

In  Black  Walnut  (oiled), 
Folding  Cover,...  $90  00 
In  Black  _ Walnut 
(polished),  Folding 
Cover, 95  00 


37 


THE  HOWE 

Im  pro  reel  Family  Sewing  MaeMnes* 

No.  6. 

This  cut  represents 
the  “Folding  Cover” as 
it  appears  when  open, 
and  forming  table  for 
the  convenience  of  the 
operator.  In  figure  5 
the  Folding  Cover  is 
represented  as  shut,  and 
thus  completely  enclos- 
ing and  protecting  the 
working  parts  of  the 
machine.  A most  novel 
and  ingenious  arrange- 
ment of  a table  and 
cover  combined. 


No.  7. 

LETTER  A MACHINE. 

Drop  Leaf  and  Drawers,  with 
Box  Top. 

Black  Walnut. 

PRICES. 

Ornamented  Machine,  $80 
Pearled  and  Plated,..  85 
Extra  Pearled  and 
Plated, 9° 


38 

THE  HOWE 


\mwm u 


No.  8. 


CABINET. 


Prices  from  $100  to  $200. 


We  furnish  Cabinets  similar  to  the  above,  with  Box  or  Fold- 
ing Tops,  with  Patent  Doors,  in  Black  Walnut, 
Mahogany,  Rosewood,  Maple,  Chestnut,  &c. 


THE  HOWE 


No.  9. 


FOLDING  TOP  CABINET  CASE. 


The  above  cut  represents  the  Cabinet  Case  and  Folding  Cover,  as  the  same  appears  when  thrown 
open  for  use.  These  cases  are  most  beautifully  finished  and  conveniently  arranged.  In  figure  8 the 
Folding  Cover  is  represented  as  shut,  resembling  the  Box  Top,  and  thus  completely  enclosing  and 
protecting  the  working  parts  of  the  machine. 


Price  List  of  Folding  Cover  Cabinet  Case. 


LETTER  A MACHINE. 

In  Black  Walnut  (oiled), .$no  oo 

In  Black  Walnut  or  Mahogany  (polished), .'.  nj  oo 

LETTER  A MACHINE,  PEARLED  AND  SILVER  PLATED. 

In  Black  Walnut  (oiled), 115  00 

In  Black  Walnut  or  Mahogany  (polished), 120  00 

LETTER  A MACHINE,  EXTRA  PEARLED  AND  SILVER  PLATED. 

In  Black  Walnut  (oiled), 125  00 

In  Black  Walnut  or  Mahogany  (polished), 130  00 


40 


THE  HOWE 


LETTER  MACHINE, 

PEARLED  AND  PLATED. 


In  Full  Case,  Folding  Top,  Polished  Black  Walnut,  extra 

finish,  and  lined  with  Satin  Wood.  Price, $iSo  oo 


4i 


THE  HOWE 

ImproYed  jfamllj  Sewing  HEs@MM©§e 


LETTER  B MACHINE. 

Letter  E Machine  is 
used  extensively  by  Tail- 
ors, sewing  with  equal 
facility  on  heavy  Beaver 
Cloth  and  Marseilles, 
Duck,  Linen  and  Alpaca; 
it  is  also  used  by  Shoe 
Manufactories  making  a 
most  beautful  stitch  on 
English  and  French  Last- 
ing and  Patent  Leather. 

Price,  complete,  $75  oo 


LETTER  C MACHINE. 


Letter  C is  recommend- 
ed for  the  heavier  g-rades 
of  work,  being  much  larg- 
er than  the  B Machine. 
It  is  universally  acknow- 
ledged to  be  superior  to 
all  others  for  Boot  and 
Shoe  making,  Carriage 
Trimmers,  Harness  mak- 
ing, &c.  It  has  two  Pres- 
sers  with  each  machine — 
one  a wheel  for  Leather, 
the  other  a flat  Presser 
for  Cloth. 


Price,  complete.  $90  00 


I 

42 

THE  HOWE 

lMp@?©d!  Familj  Sewing  MaeMnas* 


. LETTER  E,  OR  CYLINDER  MACHINE. 

Price,  complete, -$I5S  GO 

This  machine  has  peculiarities  which  particularly  adapt  it  to  first-class  Leather  work.  The  con- 
struction of  the  stitch  made  by  this  machine  renders  it  more  durable,  in  every  respect,  than  that  made 
by  any  other  shuttle  or  lock  stitch  machine,  and  preferable  to  stitching  done  by  hand.  The  movements 
are  as  near  those  performed  by  hand  as  it  is  possible  for  machinery  to  accomplish.  The  needle  is 
much  smaller,  and  carries  a much  larger  thread  than  any  other  needle  used,  draws  the  stitch  firmly 
into  the  material,  and  makes  it  more  regular  than  when  done  by  the  best  hand  stitchers.  The  needles 
used  are  nearer  to  the  stitcher’s  awl  than  any  before  applied  to  stitching,  and  the  stitching  can  be 
made  to  appear  better  and  more  regular  than  is  possible  otherwise. 

The  shuttle  is  the  largest  used  in  any  machine,  and  carries  a much  larger  quantity  of  thread,  which 
obviates  somewhat  the  necessity  of  stopping  in  the  middle  of  a piece  of  work.  The  tensions  upon  the 
thread  are  perfectly  under  the  control  of  the  operator,  and  can  be  made  to  present  the  stitch  alike  on 
both  sides  of  the  material,  or  otherwise,  as  may  be  desired. 

The  form  of  the  machine  being  cylindrical,  is  particularly  adapted  to  patent  leather  boot  and 
shoe  fitting,  also  harness  and  saddlery  werk,  where  the  form  oi  the  work  must  be  strained  while 
stitching;  and,  in  fact,  for  any  peculiarly  formed  work  to  be  stitched,  this  Cylindrical  Machine 
is  the  most  appropriate. 

It  is  also  adapted  to  carriage  trimming,  traveling  bag  and  satchel  making,  from  the  tact  that 
it  carries  a larger  quantity  of  coarse  thread,  and  the  form  admits  of  stitching  part  of  the  work 
where  other  machines  will  not. 


43 


THE  HOWE 

Family  Sewing  Machines, 


If  it  be  inconvenient  for  the  purchaser  to  visit  our  office,  or  that 
of  our  Agent  in  the  District  in  which  the  purchaser  may  reside,  the 
order  may  be  forwarded  by  mail,  and  will  be  as  faithfully  filled  as  if 
the  selection  had  been  made  personally.  Machines  are  forwarded  to 
any  part  of  the  country,  and  full  instructions  sent — which  will  enable 
the  most  inexperienced  to  operate  them.  Cash  or  draft  must  accom- 
pany the  order.  Machines  may  be  sent,  however,  payment  to  be  col- 
lected on  deliver)-,  if  satisfactory  assurance  is  given  that  it  will  then 
be  made.  Our  interest  not  being  second  to  that  of  purchasers  of  ma- 
chines in  their  successful  operation,  we  hold  ourselves  in  readiness  to 
render  any  necessary  and  practicable  assistance,  by  correspondence  or 
otherwise,  for  this  purpose  ; and,  for  faithfulness  in  this  respect,  refer- 
ence is  made  to  the  tens  of  thousands  now  using  these  machines. 


The  Committee  of  the  American  Institute,  New  York,  appointed 
to  examine  Sewing  Machines,  arranged  them  according  to  the  stitch 
made,  and  the  purpose  to  which  the  machine  is  to  be  applied,  in  four 
classes — ist,  2d,  3d  and  4th— -a  classification  indicating  the  general 
order  of  merit  and  importance. 

Class  1st  includes  the  Shuttle  or  Howe  Lock  Stitch  Machines,  for  family 
use,  and  for  manufacturers  in  the  same  range  of  purpose  and  material. 
The  Committee  has  assigned  this  class  the  highest  rank,  on  account 
of  “ elasticity,  permanence,  beauty,  and  general  desirableness  of  the 
stitching  when  done,”  and  the  wide  range  of  its  application. 

Class  2d  includes  the  Shuttle  or  Howe  Lock  Stitch  Machines , for  heavy 
manufacturing  purposes. 

Class  3d  includes  the  Double  Chain  Stitch  Machines.  The  Grover  & 
Baker  Machine  is  placed  at  the  head  of  this  class.  The  Committee 
objects  to  the  stitch  made  by  this  machine,  inasmuch  as  it  consumes 
more  thread  than  any  other  stitch,  and  leaves  a ridge  projecting  from 
one  side  of  the  seam,  which  must  usually  impair  the  durability  of  the 
seam,  and  often  the  durability  of  the  garments  or  other  articles  so 
stitched — though  some  of  the  machines  making  this  stitch  can  be 
used  very  successfully  for  embroidery  purposes. 

Class  4th  includes  the  Single  Thread , Tambour  or  Chain  Stitch 
Machines  (known  as  the  Willcox  & Gibbs).  The  tendency  of  the  stitch 
to  ravel  the  Committee  considers  an  objection  so  serious,  that  they 
refuse  to  recommend  the  machines  making  it  for  any  premium. 


\ 


■ 


MACHINE 

Silk,  Cotton  and  Thread. 

Having  long  felt  a necessity  for  supplying  not  only  the  users 
of  our  Machines,  but  the  public  generally  with  the  best  and  most 
reliable  quality  of  Machine  Silk,  and  knowing  that  the  system 
of  selling  by  weight  has  been  productive  of  much  evil,  we 
have  adopted  the  system  erf  graduating  our  sizes  accurately, 
and  giving  the  same  number  of  yards  on  each  spool  of  the  same 
size,  or  letter  of  silk,  irrespective  of  weight. 

JJ'eighting  Silk  so  heavily  in  the  process  of  dyeing  as  to  injure 
the  quality,  has  been  practiced  to  such  an  extent  by  manufacturers, 
that  it  has  been  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  purchasers  to 
know  what  they  were  buying. 

Moreover,  as  length,  strength  and  a proper  and  uniform  size 
rather  chan  weight  are  the  qualities  required,  it  would  seem 
proper  that  this  article  should  no  longer  be  sold  by  weight. 

Each  spool  of  Silk,  manufactured  expressly  for  us,  bears  our 
trade  mark  ; and  the  length , as  printed  thereon,  is  guaranteed. 

It  is,  of  course,  to  our  interest,  as  well  as  the  interest  of  our* 
purchasers,  that  those  who  use  our  Machines  should  be  supplied 
with  Machine  Silk  of  superior  quality,  and  it  is  with  a view  of 
furnishing  an  honest  article  at  a fair  price,  that  we  have  become 
Silk  dealers  on  a large  scale.  If  others  offer  to  sell  Silk  at  less 
than  our  prices,  purchasers  tvill  probably  find  it  inferior  in 
quality,  or  deficient  in  quantity,  or  both. 

We  would  also  call  attention  to  our  stocks  of  Cotton  and 
Linen  Threads,  which  will  be  found  to  be  of  the  first  quality 
and  low  priced. 

All  of  our  Branch  Offices  and  Agents  throughout  the  country 
keep  a full  stock  of  the  above  articles,  as  well  as  Needles, 
Duplicate  Parts  of  Machines,  Oil  and  all  Attachments,  and  we 
would  advise  all  those  using  our  Machines  to  purchase  their 
supplies  at  our  offices. 

The  Howf.  Machine  Co. 

October,  1872. 


% 


'll  C 


THE  ORIGINAL 


!#w©  S©win^  M achine. 


MANUFACTURED  BY 

Mow*  Machewb  Company, 

ELIAS  HOWE,  Jr. 

DEPOT,  699  BROADWAY, 

Corner  Fourth  Street.  NEW  YORK. 

4*. 

PRINCIPAL  OFFICES: 


LONDON, c 64  Regeiil  Street. 

LIVERPOOL, 07  Komi  Street. 

PARIS. 4S  Boulevard  lie  Sebastopol. 

HAMBURG,. . .23  & 25  Or.  Jphannis  Strasse. 

ST.  PETERSBURG, 4 Rue  Micliel. 

MOSCOW, Rue  lie  la  Petrowka. 

BRUSSELS, 103  Rue  Ncuve. 

RERUN, 17  Jeriisalemer  Strasse. 

MILAN. 11)  forgo  Vittorio  Enianucle. 

RIO  RE  JANEIRO, 00  Rua  da  Ouitanda. 

NEW  YORK 099  Broadway. 

BOSTON 1-29  ^Washington  St. 

PHILADELPHIA.  Pa 23  South  8th  St. 

BALTIMORE,  Mil., . . 136  West  Fayette  St. 

CINCINNATI.  0 179  West  Itli  St. 

CHICAGO,  111., 941  Wabash  Ave. 

BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.. 41 S Fulton  St. 

ROCHESTER,  N.  Y.. 99  State  St. 

DETROIT,  Midi.. 178  Jefferson  Are. 

PERU,  Indiana. 

SCRANTON. 504  Lackawanna  Ave. 

HARTFORD, 278  Main  St. 

ATLANTA,  Ga. 

NEW  HAVEN, 97  Orange  St. 

NEWARK, SO 7 Broad  St. 


PROVIDENCE, 

MILWAUKEE.  Win. 
CLEVELAND.  0.,.. 
BUFFALO,  N.  Y... 

ALBANY, 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  Cal.. 
ST.  LOUIS,  Mo..! 
INDIANAPOLIS.  I ml.. 

NASHVILLE,  Teim 

NEW  ORLEANS,  La.,.. 

MEADTILLE,  Pa., 

PITTSBURG  Pa.. 

SYRACUSE,  N.  Y 

UTICA,  N.  Y 

ELMIRA,  N.  Y 

BINGHAMTON,  N.  Y... 

LOUISTILLE,  Ky 

WASHINGTON.  1).  ('..  0: 
TOLEDO.  0. 
WHEELING,  W.  Va. 

RALEIGH,  N.  C., 

CHARLESTON,  S.  C. 

COLUMBUS,  0. 

DUBUQUE,:... 

PROVIDENCE, 


11 S Wisconsin  St. 
230  Superior  St. 

405  Main  St. 

S9  N Pearl  St. 
. . .137  Kearney  St. 
12  Washington  Ave. 
0 W.  Washington  St. 
o AY.  Summer  St. 
. . ISIS  Canal  St. 
Ill  Chestnut  St. 

4 Sixth  Sf. 

.61  South  Salina  St. 
205  Genesee  St. 

20  Lake  Sts 

.39  Court  St. 
160  Fourth  St. 
29  Pennsylvania  Are. 


Fayetteville  st. 


..97  South  Htgrli  St. 

126  Main  St. 

. . .105  Westminster. 


M.  C.  Rlehardsou  & Co.,  Printers  and  Lithographers,  Lockport,  >.  Y. 


30165 


